CL&P Claims Its Meters Can't Be Inaccurate

Connecticut Light & Power insists that its customers have as much chance of having a faulty meter that results in higher bills as winning a lottery. State utility regulators agree.

I am not a conspiracy believer and normally I would accept such assurances. But after receiving two compelling complaints in 10 days from CL&P customers, I'm now a little skeptical. The first complaint came from a 70-year-old retired man living in Hartford in a one-bedroom apartment with no washer, no dryer, no electric heat, and a gas stove. His electric bill averaged $70 a month.

Karl Steinhart assumed that his bills were correct until he chatted with his neighbors, who rent similar one-bedroom apartments in his building. He learned that their bills averaged in the $30 range. So he called CL&P to complain, demanding his meter be tested or replaced.

CL&P agreed and wrote him a letter on March 21 saying they tested the meter, found a minor problem, but nothing that would invalidate his billing. The meter was replaced and the old meter was sent out for further testing.

But Steinhart's bill dropped from $72.15 in March to $31.97 in April. He called CL&P thinking that a giant utility with a million customers would be willing to talk turkey about refunding him three years' worth of excess payments.

Nope. ``They were arrogant and snooty as hell,'' said the former Aetna worker. They insisted that their meter worked fine and the reduced readings simply reflected less customer usage. This is when he sent the Watchdog a letter with a copy of his bill and called state public utility regulators.

Steinhart said he lives frugally on a small fixed income. At times he went without necessities, like medication, to pay for his bill.

It was only after I called Mitch Gross, CL&P spokesman, that the company took Steinhart's complaint seriously. He said he was upset that Steinhart was not treated with more courtesy.

Three weeks later Gross called me back to say, oops, there was something wrong with Steinhart's meter and CL&P would give him a refund.

``We have determined that the meter test results were misinterpreted. We retested the meter. This is a one in 1.2 million. We have never seen such an erratic meter,'' he said Thursday.

He said that with about 150 complaints a year, from the more than 1 million customers, only two meters were causing a billing error.

The second complaint came from Anthony Calibey of West Hartford, who for the past 19 years closed up his home in the winter and basked in the Florida sunshine.

And each year his electric usage would be reduced by 75 percent as he turned off everything but his refrigerator and a couple of lights.

This year however, Calibey's bills showed increases in both usage and costs for the months he was gone. When he received his February bill, Calibey didn't study it closely, figuring there was a rate increase.

But when his bill was still high in March, he called the utility company. They insisted he must have had left something on in the house when he left. His children and neighbors checked the house several times. Nothing was on except for the refrigerator and a couple of lights, he said.

Now for the real interesting part: When Calibey returned home, his April bill was less than those while he was away.CL&P checked the meter and said it was working fine.

I again called the CL&P spokesman. Gross immediately had a representative call Calibey. Gross told me that Calibey told the company that his sump pump was left on and apparently was running continuously and that he had two refrigerators that were also running.

``Nonsense,'' Calibey said, denying he told CL&P a different story than what he told me. Calibey said CL&P suggested to him that his neighbor must have tapped into his power, a claim he also rejects.

Neither Calibey nor Steinhart received much support from state utility regulators, whom they both contacted

. As far as I am concerned, until CL&P and state utility regulators take complaints more seriously and come up with a better explanation of Calibey's bills, I remain a skeptic.

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